A Trip Downtown

Today I went downtown to take photos for another session of Ask Your Auntie. When I looked up at the buildings while standing in the concrete jungle I spotted the clouds reflection in the buliding and anyone who follows my blog I'm sure knows how much I LOVE reflections.

In the City Centre Mall where the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) is located and the Ask Your Auntie show is taped right next door is a Winners store. I went in to check out this store and couldn't believe my eyes, a pair of rubber boots cost almost $80 and these are some of the tackiest rubber boots I've ever seen. 

Like seriously, try wearing these through a pasture in the spring time and see how fast the cows run! 

These are what the cows are used to seeing and my wallet as well, they're about $15.99 or somewhere in that ballpark and they hide what you might step in out in the pasture very unlike the city rubber boots.

(This photo I took off the internet... oh oh here come the blogger police! lol) 

The story about the city mouse and the country mouse just came to mind, if you haven't ever heard the children's story just google it and you'll see what I'm referring to. 

More Signs of Spr...

Well so far so good, it's looking a lot more like Spr...,  pretty soon I may even start to use the word again. Not quite yet though, I don't want to jinx us by no means. It seems once I start throwing around the "S" word it'll snow again and I don't want that... no siree. 

In my travels today there were more signs...

take for example the amount of snow left in my back yard.

Remember this? 

The snow is finally reduced to this, thankfully! 

One of the main roads to take us across the river from the south side of the city to the downtown core looks like this...

And one more sign of spring, my oldest son and his wife are thinking about building a new home. This is the lot where the house will be which I'm pretty sure they've made up their mind to go ahead with. 

This is where you have to use your imagination, imagine a two story, 1900 and some odd sq. ft. home in the center of this photo. There's a double attached garage in the front and a bonus room over the garage. How about I just  take photos once the construction begins and here and there throughout the building process?  It's going to be an absolutely beautiful home.

Yup, birds are chirping, it was raining and chilly today, road construction is going on, my son and his wife are going to be building a new home and me? Well I still have my nose in a book but tonight I went to my first meeting as a volunteer to help put on this years banquet for the organization who sponsored me this year for my education, it's the least I can do!

A Day Late

I didn't post a photo yesterday, I'm a day late... on the other hand I could be a day early for today's post as I generally don't post until the wee hours of the morning. Either way this photo is one I shot yesterday...

I was driving by this church, it was rush hour and the traffic was barely moving. When this happens I pull out my camera and take photos of whatever is around me, it's something to pass the time and I don't get all wound up that I'm not moving, what's the point really? Will getting upset make the traffic move any faster? From previous experiences I'd say nope, it doesn't make one wee bit of a difference.

... a lesson on patience perhaps? Could it be a coincidence that this church happened to be right where I was stopped and I did no edits to this photo, it turned out exactly how I viewed this particular church. There may or there may not be a message in this. I know I'm grateful for all which I have in my life especially after visiting a sick friend in the hospital yesterday and after learning of the death of one of my Aunties last night, I'm grateful for the breath I breathe.

... so a day late, or a day early? In the big picture of life sometimes it doesn't matter.

Self Discipline

I am now plunging into my two correspondence courses and realize what a mistake to take courses this way. One of the courses is suggesting a minimum of 120 hours, that's one course! The other one is looking like a crazy making amount of work as well. To take a course in class is only about 39 hours in total, add the homework and maybe it's only about 80 hours total. That's one full week extra per course, what have I gotten myself into here? 

Today I realized that I'd best get cracking so out came the books, I realized that I was getting nowhere real fast with all the distractions at home so I headed down to the nearest library, that worked.

I managed to get a fair amount of reading done and I realized that this next few months could be spent at my local library. I want to get these two courses out of the way ASAP. If this is what it takes to discipline myself to get the work done so be it.   

Heavy sigh....

Could It Be?

The snow's melting, the birds are returning, the skies have been clear and the temperature today was around 18c. Could it be... could it possibly be that we won't see anymore of the white stuff this year? I sure hope this is the last of it. There was so much snow this year that a lot of the fields look like ponds now that it's melting. 

This is not a pond nor a river, it's in the middle of a field where these ducks are enjoying themselves. 

The ditches are flowing fiercely with water...

...so much so that when we returned from our drive last night the road was partially covered with water where we had to turn off to get back to the farm.We've had a few very dry years and this year I don't think that this will be a problem at all, I just hope it dries up in time for the farmers to plant their crops.

Sunset Sunday

 Tonight is the first night in a very long time which I'm able to post a sunset for Sunset Sunday which is inspired by Scott. The winter weather put a damper on taking shots of a sunset, we can't see any sunsets when it's -40 and the snow is falling... something which it did a lot of this winter. 

I drove out to the farm today and decided after dinner that I wanted to go and check out the lake, there's still too much snow to get close with running shoes on so we drove around the countryside and lo and behold, there was the sun going down.

Just because it's been so long I'm going to post 2 sunset shots. :-)

My heart is dancing seeing these shots... the ahhhh feeling just came over me! Here comes the spring, I hope. What a fantastic way to spend my Easter Sunday, I hope you all enjoyed yours as well. 

Local 720

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending the Ironworkers Local 780 Pin and Award Banquet. 

The dinner was phenomenal, it started with French crepes with smoked salmon, followed by cannelli bean and pancetta soup, the entree was herb roasted beef tenderloin and shrimp skewer and dessert... I'll let that speak for itself.

After dinner the pins and awards were presented then the Dammit Jim Band crooned some good old tunes and began the party. 

The Ironworkers know how to party in style, nothing but the best for their men!

I've seen some of what the Ironworkers do and I honestly don't know how anyone could work way up in the sky like they do, especially balancing on beams. Hats off to our Ironworkers, that's one tough job in my opinion.

Happy Easter

I love being a grandma, I get to go shopping for things I haven't bought in a very long time. I found some adorable bunny slippers, a pink lamb and an Elmo book that makes noises (Elyssa loves Sesame Street) for my granddaughter as an Easter gift. I don't like buying chocolate for children, their parents can buy them that plus Elyssa's to young to have chocolate. I wonder if once she's older if I'll buy her chocolate, I hope not even if she bats those big brown eyes at me! Time will tell.

Have a very Happy and Blessed Easter.

Mothers Day and Birthdays

In May I have two events to celebrate, the first one being Mothers Day and the second one is my birthday, one which I might overlook this year. My children surprised me with an early gift this year, an amazing gift, one which will keep on giving. 

It's beginning to feel like BBQ season!  

Thank you so much Shayne, Sandy, Derek, Michelle and Elyssa, I LOVE it! 

Ahhhh ... Much Better

With snow melting and all the dust and dirt flying around my car had looked like I just drove it through a huge mud puddle. I fixed that today after waiting in a rather long line up at the car wash. It was worth the wait, my car is now its nice shiny red once again... for a day or two anyways.

S_ _ _ _ _ Possibly

I'm not going to say it anymore, if I say the word it seems to start to snow to make a lair out of me. The weather was beautiful today, we reached high of around 10c (note no minus!) and what I really like is the snow is melting finally, it's clearing up. I can see patches on my front lawn, patches which will turn to grass if s_ _ _ _ _  ever gets here to stay.

Did you ever as a child lay back in the grass on a beautiful sunny day when there were big white puffy clouds in the sky and see what kind of objects you could find? The sky today brought me back to being a young girl, I remember clear as day seeing elephants, monkeys and what have you in the cloud formations. I was looking at this photo I shot today and trying to see what I could see in the clouds, what do you see besides white puffy clouds? 

In the clouds near the bottom if you turn your head slightly to the right there's the one cloud that looks like a reindeer... like I have all this time on my hands to stare at clouds, I'd best get typing out responses to this last take home final! 

The Trek Home

As much as I didn't want to we headed for home today. Tonight I'm back in my office browsing through photos from our amazing get away. I'm not sure what I'm going to post yet, I've downloaded a lot of photos but will go to the link and then decide which photos I'm going to post, I'm going to surprise even myself here.

On our drive home we detoured and went through Dead Mans Flats, a place I was curious about and wanted to see what was there. Really there wasn't much of anything, seriously there's one street and one avenue... 

 (The only sign I spotted but we didn't tour the entire hamlet so there just may well be 2 streets and 2 avenues but judging from the size, I highly doubt it.)

 I'd live in this shack in Dead Mans Flats, the view is spectacular. 

In Dead Mans Flats there might only be one street and one avenue, there may be only shacks but there's Canadian pride... yup I'd live here.

To end my mini holiday I thought I'd share these photos of the mountains which I feel are just to beautiful to keep all to myself. 

"How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!" 

            ~John Muir

"I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in." 

     ~George Washington Carver

"The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man." 

          ~Author Unknown

"I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes."

~e.e. cummings

Christmas in April

Today it was like Christmas even though it's a few sleeps away...

There's a store in Banff which is called The Christmas Store, it was so cool walking through there seeing Christmas with decorated trees, all sort of ornaments and it even smelled like Christmas but the best thing about today is that it felt like Christmas all day. 

Our first stop today was a ways up a mountain, we went to Banff Hot Springs. While my oldest son and his wife went for a massage I had my precious baby under my wing. There right in front of us was a gift shop so naturally we had to find something for my princess, what's Christmas without a gift or two? We found the cutest toque for Elyssa.

Then it was off to pure bliss, I had a one hour massage followed by a soak in the hot springs. 

And what's Christmas without Reindeer? 

And to finish up our day in Banff, our Christmas dinner without the dishes. 

Yup, Christmas come early... I think that the spirit of Christmas is optional, we can choose to carry it with us any day of the week, any month of the year. 

Merry Christmas! :-)

A Day in Canmore

 Today was snowy and overcast but we found something to do, we went shopping! We toured up one side of main street and down the other. I saw some pretty nice things but it's sure expensive for what I like... what I wonder is how the heck I developed this champagne taste on a beer budget!

We went up the side of one of the mountains here, thankfully my son has a Durango. The road was pretty slick and you bet I got scared a few times but it was worth the trip up. To be in the middle of the mountains was such an unbelievable feeling! I don't mind that it was overcast and snowy, this gives me an awesome excuse to come back one day in the summer to take more photos... any excuse to come back here works by me! 

The skies cleared for a wee bit, naturally once we were back down the mountain. The sun peeked through briefly, long enough to get excited for a bit. 

Thankfully we didn't spot the Sasquatch, now that would be freaky!

It was another amazing day, funny how it ended though. There's a Casino not far from here, about a 25 minute drive and me and my daughter decided to go out for a bit. It was still light out when we left and I wasn't really paying attention to where we were going. On our way back it was dark and the snow was coming down really heavy. We got back to Canmore and got lost. We spent at least half an hour trying to figure out where we were but we eventually made it back to our hotel. I don't know what it is about me and my daughter, we seem to get lost fairly easy but the good thing is that we eventually find our way to where we're headed. 

... and off to get another day started. 

Have a fantastic day everyone!

Road Trip

Last night I couldn't sleep, well I slept for a few broken up hours... I was too excited to be getting away this weekend! Well we're here now in the mountains, it's beautiful! I was shocked when we checked into our room, it's beautiful! 

We have a full kitchen...

The living room with a fireplace, a patio with a BBQ...

There's a bedroom on the main floor with a full bath adjoining the bedroom and there's a loft bedroom with another full bath. 

There's three tv's, and even a washer and dryer tucked into a closet. I could get used to living like this!

I didn't have much time for photos, we didn't arrive until 6pm and we met my son, his wife and my granddaughter for dinner. Then it was time to get checked in and settled. I did however take one photo of The Three Sisters which I feel is good enough to post, especially considering it was a drive by shooting.

I'll take tons more photos with my Canon once I'm settled, rested and ready to go again.

Rick what was the other shot you put in a request for? I'll see if I can figure out what it is and where it is once I know what I'm looking for. This is fun, sort of like a scavenger hunt with photos. I didn't know what The Three Sisters (Faith, Charity and Hope) were until you mentioned them... I don't get out enough obviously! lol

... and more snow

I woke up this morning and it was snowing AGAIN, I was hoping that we were done with this white stuff but no such luck. I found myself even shoveling again tonight, I don't want any more "warnings" from the city in regards to keeping my sidewalks clean!  A few weeks without snow and everyone forgets how to drive in it, funny how that works, mind you the roads were very slippery...

... so slippery that a sand truck rear ended the back of a small car.

Even though I was late for class by about half an hour I'm grateful I made it there and no sanding trucks were behind me. 

For those of you who are fortunate enough to not know what a sand truck is it's a truck which puts sand on the roads, the truck is bigger than your average truck and it's heavy when filled with sand. The sand comes out of the bottom of the truck through some type of a chute. The purpose of this is that the sand helps vehicles stay on the roads when it's slippery out there, it gives the vehicles traction. I guess someone should have put sand on the roads for the sand truck to get traction before they went out to sand the roads. ;-)

Pay it Forward

Recently I saw on a fellow bloggers site a Pay it Forward, this got me to thinking tonight... today I went and spent time with my granddaughter while her Mommy and Daddy were working, they gave me a beautiful Thank You card from all of them which really touched my heart.

Last night I put it out here that my sister has been blogging and I asked for some supports for her, many of you responded which really means a lot to me. So tonight I'm going to pay forward my Thank You card. 

An immense Thank You to all of those who responded. I feel that this community of blogging is phenomenal; you are all very unique, special, warm, caring people and for this I can say that I'm proud to be affiliated with each one of you. Everybody should be so blessed to have such wonderful friends, the ironic thing is that I have yet to meet you all but I hope to one day... until then you're all awesome and huge hugs sent out your way tonight! 

Now the thing is with this Thank You card, any time you want to send someone a virtual thank you... pay this forward, feel free to use this Thank You card.

One final word which I've borrowed....

"Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all." 

~William Faulkner

... so go ahead, what are you waiting for, thank someone, somewhere for something today and have an amazing day!

Supports

Hi there, me again.... 

I was wondering if any of you have the spare time if you could drop into my sisters blog and maybe offer some words of support, she's undertaking a new lifestyle change through trying to get healthy and has been blogging for a bit now. I'm the only one who visits her site and I was hoping that I could muster up some supports for her. I'd appreciate this.

Hers's her blogsite, or here's the link

http://my17days.blogspot.com/

Thanks!

Mellow Yellow

I worked today, tonight I'm supposed to be studying for my final tomorrow night but I'll get to that shortly here. I've heard the saying "mellow yellow" and my life is anything but that right now. I wanted to add some color into my day so I found some yellow, that's a nice brilliant color which I hope influences my mood.

The Tiger Lily, probably my second favorite flower after roses.

 I don't know where I'd rank tulips on my favorite list but they're pretty and so spring like that right now I love them! 

I will get through this week, I just hope my marks are strong enough to get to where I'm seeing myself next year at this time. I'll be back to checking out your blogs in a few days, I have to get through this final and ready for a short holiday... see you all when things lighten up a bit here. In the meantime do what you enjoy and enjoy what you do!

Art

It was a busy day, I was being a chauffeur first for my boyfriend who brought his big truck to the city to have some work done to it then afterward I had to get my niece to an appointment. I covered the west, north and south sides of the city so I had plenty of photo opportunities. 

This first shot is our new art gallery, I've yet to get in to check it out but when I do I'll take my camera and share what I can find there worth sharing. I think that this is a rather odd looking building but then again what do I know about art?

This next photo must have been a city employee, he probably took his lunch break and though observation I've seen how hard city employees work... he forgot to go back to work and turned into a statue! 

Welcome Home

Today I went out, camera in hand with no idea what I might stumble across. Okay so I got in my car and went a meeting. I visited for a bit afterward and stopped off at a park to see what I could see on my way home. 

The snow is melting finally, I saw there were a lot of seagulls but that wasn't too exciting so I got closer and seen if there was anything of interest. It wasn't until I snapped a photo and looked at it,  there they were... there were 2 Canadian geese at the end of this pond. 

What a welcomed sight! I shot a lot of photos but the darn seagulls seemed to want to be the center of attention. I never realized until today that seagulls are so darn egotistical. 

Bugger just had to get in the way, I see these guys all the time and they are famous for making my car dirty, I didn't want them in my pictures but I took what I could get. 

Finally a moment to snap away without the seagulls getting in the way.

This one seagull seemed as though he was feeling a bit dejected so I obliged it and took it's photo. I suppose that seagulls are cute in their own annoying way.

And there he went, he finally left me alone! 

This post was to welcome home the Canadian geese, now how did it turn out that it's mostly about seagulls? Something tells me that seagulls aren't as stupid as I though they were!